In case you missed it, Swiss-based ABB will acquire Baldor Electric Company  beginning December 2010 in an all-cash deal.  The $4.2 billion deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011.

Why?  For ABB, this transaction fills in a gap in ABB’s automation offerings by folding in Baldor’s successful NEMA motor line and will better position the company as a major player in the industrial motor market, including high-efficiency motors.  It will also bump up ABB’s mechanical power transmission business and will significantly broaden ABB’s access to North American industrial customers.

 Does it seem like your maintenance staff is constantly putting out “fires?” Or that your production equipment is always running to failure requiring industrial electronics repair and causing unplanned work stoppages? 

Lean manufacturing may be the answer.  Lean manufacturing concepts aren’t new but they are gaining momentum…and for good reason. 

By implementing some lean manufacturing strategies, you can track equipment breakdowns, schedule preventive maintenance, and anticipate needs for maintenance parts.   Benefits include:

• Waste elimination
• Defect reduction
• Productivity maximization
• Engaging  your work force as a team

Oh, the pain..the misery…the teeth gnashing and, oh yeah, the cursing!  Your drive just alarmed out, your equipment has stopped, production has ceased, and you are wasting time and money.  Can the drive be saved?  The good news is…probably! 

Before it comes to that scenario, consider this:  We all know HEAT is the root of all evil when it comes to electronic equipment.   Add some MOISTURE and DIRT and you have the electronic axis of evil and disaster!

So, practice prevention first by:

-  keeping your electrical cabinets CLOSED

-  keeping your FANS  in good REPAIR

-  making sure those cabinent FILTERS are always CLEAN

Not surprisingly, reliability ranked the most important criteria in purchasing industrial electronics according to a recent survey by Plant Engineering & Maintenance. 

Reliability was followed, in descending order, by quality, safety, maintenance, service, price, throughput, technology, noise, speed, and “green”.

Maintenance ranked 4th out of 11 so we know it’s pretty high on your list.  Nobody wants equipment that is difficult or excessively expensive to maintain.  Downtime is lost time and lost time is lost money.  

Save money in the long run by purchasing quality industrial electronic equipment with a good warranty.  And when that warranty runs out, or the OEM does not provide responsive service, send your repairs to a reliable expert. 

Top 5 Electronic Repair Problems in 2009

I was just reading a friend’s notes and he made a great case for providing detailed information to your repair service provider.  Here at ACS, we request our customers describe the problem with their item when they send them in for evaluation. You probably could not begin to guess what our Top 5 repair descriptions were for 2009, so I will share them with you:

Top 5 Electronic Repair Descriptions for 2009

1. Does Not Work
2. Blank (as in nothing at all in the problem description box)
3. Dead

Got a bad Yaskawa product that needs repair? ACS Can Help. ACS repairs all Yaskawa products. Yaskawa power supply repairs, Yaskawa AC Drives, Yaskawa DC Drives, Yaskawa VFD Drives,  Yaskawa Spindle Drives, Yaskawa Monitors, Yaskawa Servo Motor Repairs and more. ACS repairs just about any Yaskawa product manufactured. Call for info at 800-605-6419 or email questions to service@acsindustrial.com.

Recently a machine tool user sent a bad Yaskawa power supply from a Mori-Seiki CNC machining center to ACS on a Friday.  By Wed the following week, ACS had the item back to the end user and he was back into operation. This was one happy customer!

Got a bad Yaskawa product that needs repair? ACS Can Help. ACS repairs all Yaskawa products. Yaskawa power supply repairs, Yaskawa AC Drives, Yaskawa DC Drives, Yaskawa VFD Drives, and Yaskawa Spindle Drives, Yaskawa Monitors, Yaskawa Servo Motor Repairs and more. ACS repairs just about any Yaskawa product manufactured. Call for info at 800-605-6419 or email questions to service@acsindustrial.com.

These folks will get your Yaskawa item evaluated, repaired and returned as fast as possible. All repairs are covered by a comprehensive one year warranty unless otherwise specified. ACS Industrial is a member in good standing of the Power Sources Manufacturers Association and are very committed to providing the best Power Supply Repair available.

ACS now offers expanded Yaskawa Repair services. If you have a down Yaskawa Spindle Drive, Servo Motor, Servo Drive, Monitor, CNC Circuit Board or any other Yaskawa Product, ACS can evaluate, repair and return it in perfect working order. We repair all Yaskawa equipment.

The experienced repair techs at ACS treat each repair job as if their job depended on it. And guess what…their jobs do depend on how well they repair the customer’s equipment. Our customer’s satisfaction with the Electronic Repair Services we provide is the most important aspect of our business.

During the last week of April 2006 ACS Industrial Services received a call from a desperate store room management firm. They had been trying to get Baldor Servo Drives repaired with little success. Their customer was down to the last spare drive board and was starting to sweat. It seems that they had been sending these Baldor drive boards to several different electronic repair firms for repair. The trouble was that the drive boards were being returned repaired but did not work when installed. ACS performed a RUSH repair and returned the boards in two days. The following email excerpt is greatly appreciated by
ACS Industrial Services and the Staff: